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Belle & Sebastian (Support: Schwervon!)

Belle & Sebastian are a Scottish indie pop band. They played in the Vienna Gasometer with support from Schwervon!, an American rock duo.

Schwervon!

L. and I arrived a little late because we had to stuff ourselves with sushi first [it’s a hard life]. So, we saw Schwervon! exactly for two songs and those two songs didn’t really stick, so I don’t feel qualified to talk about their show. It was okay, but nothing that made me go “woah, I need to check out their music!”

I don’t know Belle & Sebastian that much. What I know, I like, but I never really listened to them more intensely. But it was L.’s birthday and she loves them and it gave me a reason to lure her to Vienna (even though she didn’t know what for until a few hours before the concert), so I figured I’d get to know them better through a live show. Which worked pretty well.

Belle & Sebastian

What really stood out to me about the show were two things: Sarah Martin plays a ridiculous amount of instruments. I counted at least 6 during the entire show and I more as likely missed a couple. It’s really impressive, especially for someone *coughlikemecough* who utterly failed in learning to play either the recorder or the guitar.

The other thing was Stuart Murdoch‘s interaction with the audience. He should give lessons. He was charming and fun, he went down to the audience and talked with them and he got a few people on stage to dance. And it wasn’t such an embarassing stunt as 30 Seconds to Mars did in their show, either, the dancers were allowed to stand close to him and even touch him [personally I would have drawn the line there, he didn’t look too comfortable with it either…]

There was also a guy who kept shouting random song names. He started with “Strawberry Fields”, which Murdoch commented on with, “you’re at the wrong gig!” But when the guy reached “The Rivers of Babylon”, Murdoch paused, said “That is so bizarre, I was thinking of Boney M. earlier today” and then he and Stevie Jackson actually played a short cover of the song (according to Murdoch, the weirdest cover they ever did).

But audience interaction was not the only thing that they did well. Their show was nicely timed, their songs have this very nice upbeat feel to them that will just pull you along and just makes for a very nice concert. I liked it and I’ll definitely listen to them more closely now.

And, L., here’s the song they played especially for lawyers you:

Summarising: a very nice concert, even if you don’t know the music that well.

6 thoughts on “Belle & Sebastian (Support: Schwervon!)”

Whoa. I am insanely jealous. I LOVE Belle and Sebastien. Some songs I’ve heard on repeat for hours. That was ages back, though, in an obsessive phase.

Btw, I am quite famous (amongst my friends, I mean) for having horrendous coordination/manual dexterity, but even I managed to get decent at the recorder, even though I haven’t played it since high school. :)

If you force me, and give me a couple of days to practice and re-acquaint myself with the instrument, I might manage to play an ill-timed and probably horrible sounding rendition of Silent Night. But that’s pretty much it.
It’s not only the lack in coordination (from which I also suffer), but also the lack in musical talent.